A wide-open view of the practice of street photography by Michael David Murphy, While Seated.

Joel Meyerowitz Video

If you’re looking for a quick and dirty street photography tutorial (rather than this long-winded series), check out this quick video of Joel Meyerowitz in action. The best part of the video isn’t the pictures themselves, it’s Meyerowitz’s enthusiasm: “the incredible replenishment of surprise at what comes your way (while street shooting) allows you to make new photographs.”

Watching video of photographers in action may be as exciting as watching paint dry for some, but I’ve found it worthwhile, especially when overlayed with the photographs themselves. The Nachtwey documentary, “War Photographer” is a fantastic example of this.

What’s amazing to this Midwesterner–beyond Meyerowitz’s enduring enthusiasm–is how the passersby seem so oblivious to it all. Granted there’s a crew filming Meyerowitz, so maybe their responses would be different if confronting a solitary man in a longshoreman’s hat snapping away. But I kind of doubt it. Here in the Twin Cities, you can stand in one place shooting photos for maybe five minutes before the someone will contact the authorities. No surprise then that street photography never seems to have entirely taken hold amongst the locals.